Transgender Activists Shout ‘Our Schools!’ Inside Florida Capitol Building

Last Friday, Florida’s capitol building in Tallahassee was crowded with transgender activists demanding “trans rights.” The protesters assembled with signs bearing slogans such as “Cure Transphobia” and “Stop Trans Genocide,” and they chanted “Whose schools? Our schools!” in response to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ parental rights education law. This law prohibits classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity for kindergarten through third grade students or in a way that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate. It went into effect last year. Despite the existence of this law, protesters continue to fight for further transgender rights, as evidenced by numerous protests across the United States last Friday.

One such protest occurred in response to President Biden’s recognition of “Transgender Day of Visibility” last Friday. In his statement, Biden blamed “MAGA extremists” for “attacks” on trans-identifying people, following the trans-identifying school shooter at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, who killed six people before being shot by police. One transgender activist group, the Trans Radical Activist Network (TRAN), had called for a “Trans Day of Vengeance” on Saturday in Washington, D.C. However, the event was canceled because of “a credible threat to life and safety,” according to TRAN’s website.

The wave of bans on puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex-change surgeries for children has prompted many protests this week, including the Kentucky protest on Wednesday, where activists descended upon the Kentucky state capitol building in Frankfurt after Kentucky’s GOP-led legislature voted to override Democrat Governor Andy Beshear’s veto of a bill restricting medical child sex changes. Several Kentucky protesters chanted “Shame! Shame!” inside the capitol rotunda, and at least 19 people were arrested at the event. Currently, 10 states in the US have active bans on medical child sex changes, with several other states waiting for their governors to sign bans the legislature has passed, and some states have restrictions on child sex changes stuck in court.